Replies inline in non-strict order.
Funnily, many of the syntax quirks come from the editors making the templates, they are not imposed by the wikitext in any way, and could be removed today if wished:
- What is "pp-semi" why it "move-indef"?
Names given by the users.
- Why bgcolour is there? It's presentation. Is any editor going to
change background color of the infobox, ever? Perhaps it has a different tone and must be #c0c1ff?
Actually, that seems wrong for an article, since I'd expect all planets to have the same background color (it'd be fine as a hidden template for templates extending it).
- "temperatures = yes" - obviously, if any temperatures are specified
in the infobox then the temperature block is enabled. Is it possible otherwise?
Can be done. The template could instead check for any value being set.
- No Celsius temperatures - the machine does better job converting
values than human plus calculator.
Can be done.
- No link in "[[Kelvin]]" - the machine can place link itself, can't it?
Can be done.
- No because it just fixes some engine problem and is problem
for its devs, not editors or, mind you, users. 6. No degree symbols: it's cleaner and users don't have to search for the special char (°).
Both could be provided by the template.
- Replaced all <ref>s with another "template argument" named
"temperatures min". This works simple: the machine calculates minimal value and applies given reference to it, if corresponding argument is passed. If no - no reference.
Can be done.
But let's be blunt and say that markup is about text MARKUP, not presentation. Not to the extent that drives such text to incomprehensibleness. If we accept the thesis that markup must be human-readable and everything else MUST be handled by the machine no matter how "complex" this might become for it we can achieve some interesting results. For example, if I'm a "newbie but intelligent" Wikipedian and open the page on "The Earth" I see this:
{{About|the planet}} {{pp-semi|small=yes}}{{pp-move-indef}} {{Infobox Planet | bgcolour = #c0c0ff | name = Earth | symbol = [[File:Earth symbol.svg|25px|Astronomical symbol of Earth]] ... }}
This is how I understand what human-readable markup means:
- Okay, I understand that "{{" and "}}" are some special symbols -
but why pipe is between what seem to be words and in the start of some new lines?
I disagree. The pipe in {{About|the planet}} can look odd, but the pipe at the beginning of the line looks natural. It seems like some kind of continuation of the {{.
These are just 3 basic questions. Processed, the above snippet might look like this:
{{About Earth, the planet}} {{Infobox symbol = [[File:Earth symbol.svg|25px|Astronomical symbol of Earth]] ... }}
That's it. Now the machine's part:
- "About" is a special "template" or some other construct. When it's
"ran" (processed) it accepts 2 colon-separated "arguments". The first specifies "name" of something (place, planet, object, etc.), the second - its "role". Moreover, even these are article-specific and can be changed. The point is that this line remains equally understandable regardless of the article type.
Space separated arguments are more readable for the casual editor, but normal editors would have a harder time to find out what's the template and what the parameters. Also, there are colons as parameters. How would you write as the parameter the article [[Gypsy: A Musical Fable]] or [[Batman: Year One]] ? By banning ':' in titles?
- "Infobox Planet" has transformed into just "Infobox" - we've got
"planet" defined in "About". 4. "bgcolor" is system presentation-specific thing, no place for it in the contents.
Agree.
- "name = Earth" - we've got this along with "Planet".
No. We have "Earth, the planet"!
You will need the proper name in the infobox, such as "Felis silvestris catus", even if the article is just called "Cat".
(temperatures markup)
What kind of false positives are we talking about? Will any sane individual spend his precious time not editing but preparing to edit this mess?
I think they copy and paste, then fill the fields. Which is a good way of learning as they encounter it.
Again, not to offend anyone and least - MediaWiki devs, but if we're talking about wikitext future the above must look much more plain: temperatures = in Kelvin: 184, 287.2, 331
Well, just by looking at it I have no idea what those temperatures are :)
184 and 331 are probably some kind of limits, but what's that 287.2? Some kind of boilding point? What if they were in a different order?